Leeds traveller pitch application set for approval despite objections

The application has been made for the Hollinhurst area in Allerton Bywater. Pic: Google.

Published:10:49Saturday 04 March 2017

An application for a traveller pitch to be set up in Leeds has been recommended for approval despite fetching more than 200 objections.

Residents and ward councillors have told Leeds City Council planners that they are opposed to the plan at land off Hollinhurst in Allerton Bywater.

But a report drafted for the council’s North and East Plans Panel next Thursday reveals that officers have recommended that the application is granted, subject to conditions.

Previous plans to build a home at the site were turned down.

The proposals include living space for a single family in the form of a mobile home towards the northern end of the site, space for two touring caravans and a “brick built day room” near to the entrance to the site.

The report says that 230 objection letters have been received about the application, with one anonymously sent in support.

Arguments made against it by some residents include nearby properties potentially reducing in value, people considering travellers to be “aggressive and anti–social” and that “the site will be left in a disgraceful state attracting vermin”.

Others – including Kippax and Methley councillors Keith Wakefield, James Lewis and Mary Harland – are concerned about an increase in vehicles blocking access to narrow roads in the area.

But the report states: “Some of the objections received have assumed that the applicant and his family are the same people who presently occupy the Nineveh Lane site and who it is understood have informed the relevant officers of the Council that they intend to vacate that site and leave the Leeds district. This is not the case.

“There is a relational connection between the current applicant and the family at Nineveh Lane, but the applicant is a family from the South of England who through personal circumstances have found it necessary to re-locate.”

The application relates to land that lies outside of Green Belt, the report says.

The panel meeting next Thursday will begin at 1.30pm at Civic Hall in Leeds.